Slidstvo.Info journalist Oleh Kotiuzhanskyi was offered $5,000 by a Russian recruiter to assassinate a Ukrainian servicemember while posing as a woman on Telegram, as reported in the Slidstvo.Info documentary FSB Ballerinas. Ukrainian Women Serving the Russians.
The journalist as assigned to investigate how Russhain recruitment schemes work, who is behind them, and how much they pay for such “services”. He created a fake Telegram account posing as “Masha Bragina”, a 22 year old from Kyiv who is looking for a job and lives in an abusive household. For added legitimacy, Oleh edited his own photo, making himself look like a girl.
Within an hour of joining several job search chats, the journalist received a series of offers to set fire to cars owned by enlistment center staff, police officers, and servicemembers; plant explosives; and gather intelligence on the ground, e.g. by taking photos and videos of specific objects.
“Masha” responded to an ad for a high-paying “no risk” job. In a private chat, the interlocutor specified in Russian that they were willing to pay $5,000 for assassinating any Ukrainian servicemember. The journalist would have to find a victim on his own.
The recruiter suggested the method, saying that “Masha” should pour a certain substance that emits deadly vapours under the hood of the victim’s car.
The journalist stayed in touch with the recruiter for about a month. During this time, the latter switched accounts four times, saying that they constantly bought “pre-made accounts” in bulk from various countries. Because of this, Slidstvo.Info was unable to identify the person behind them.
The recruiter used fictitious names and nicknames and called themselves a “big mafia boss.” They communicated via texts as well as voice messages, with the voice already modified. However, Slidstvo.Info managed to restore the recruiter’s original voice, as they only artificially lowered the tone.
In the voice messages, the recruiter assured that if “Masha Bragina” agreed to a deal she would be provided with voice-changing devices and disposable accounts.
The recruiter also explained that they were targeting young women because they could travel more freely and attracted less attention.
As soon as “Masha” stopped responding to messages, the recruiter would resort to emotional pressure and insults, then abruptly switch to flirting.
After being offered to assassinate a soldier, Oleh Kotiuzhanskyi contacted the SBU hotline. He was advised to send a screenshot of the recruiter’s account to the security service’s official chatbot “Spot the FSB Guy”. The journalist followed the hotline operator’s instructions, but as of the time of publication, he had not received any feedback.
As previously reported, according to the National Police, 82% of terrorist attacks solved in Ukraine were committed by people recruited by Russian curators via Telegram.